The cartoons in this collection capture the flavor of American life in the '20s but, while the cartoons reflect the tenor of the times, they are not a mirror image but a refraction, an image distorted by the attitudes of the times toward contemporary events. Women, for instance, are not depicted as responsible citizens, newly enfranchised. Instead, they seem vain, fickle, trivial, and wholly incapable of rational thought or practical enterprise. This is not an accurate portrayal of women at the time, but a reflection of the times: women are ridiculed and made to seem silly precisely because they were suddenly more visible in society. As new arrivals, they are held up to examination: the stereotypes of ages are juxtaposed against this new visibility, and the comedy arises because the stereotypes are so obviously unsuited for the new social role women had taken on. This collection also represents the state of magazine cartooning in the early '20s. Although many cartoons were chosen because they reflect their times, others were included because of their timeless humor, and still others because their satirical thrust (tackling issues such as the environment and censorship) makes them astonishingly contemporary still.